For years, a devastating pandemic has been sweeping through frog populations worldwide, caused by a pervasive fungal infection that has impacted amphibians on nearly every continent.
However, recent discoveries offer a glimmer of hope. Scientists have identified a virus that has evolved to replicate within this deadly fungus, potentially offering a solution to save nearly 500 frog species that have suffered significant declines due to this amphibian pandemic.
Viruses, the smallest known organisms, were not the primary focus for researchers at the University of California, Riverside. However, they unexpectedly discovered this virus integrated within the DNA of the fungus.
The culprit fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), remained relatively unnoticed until the late 1990s. It was then that frogs around the globe began dying en masse, signaling the emergence of this lethal pathogen.
“We wanted to see how different strains of fungus differ in places like Africa, Brazil, and the U.S., just like people study different strains of COVID-19,” UCR microbiology professor Jason Stajich said.
“Frogs control bad insects, crop pests, and mosquitoes. If their populations all over the world collapse, it could be devastating,” UCR microbiology doctoral student and paper author Mark Yacoub also shared.
To achieve this, Stajich and his colleagues employed DNA sequencing technology. While analyzing the data, they detected sequences that did not align with the DNA of the fungus.
“We realized these extra sequences, when put together, had the hallmarks of a viral genome,” Stajich added.
The research team had discovered that the virus—a single-strand DNA virus, the smallest known organism—has integrated into the nuclear genome of some Bd strains.
Attempts to eliminate the virus from infected isolates were unsuccessful. However, the differences observed between naturally virus-positive and virus-negative Bd isolates suggest that the presence of the virus reduces the growth of its fungal host in vitro.
“Because some strains of the fungus are infected and some are not, this underscores the importance of studying multiple strains of a fungal species,” Yacoub said about their method.
The researchers speculate that if the virus could be replicated and engineered to further inhibit fungal growth, it could provide a means to save amphibians, such as the heavily impacted harlequin frogs of Ecuador.
However, the scientists caution that extensive research is still needed before developing such a cure. Critical questions remain, including understanding how the virus infects and interacts with its fungal host.
Moving forward, the researchers are seeking hard to comprehend how the virus works and operates. “We don’t know how the virus infects the fungus, how it gets into the cells,” Yacoub also said. “If we’re going to engineer the virus to help amphibians, we need answers to questions like these.”
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